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The Lunar and Asteroid Task Force Initiative
Summary
The next administration should launch a task force within the Office of Space Commerce to promote and achieve U.S. private space exploration on the Moon and on asteroids. This task force would encourage space civilianization on the Moon’s surface and foster international collaboration around orbital debris removal.
A dedicated task force to assist private companies moving into the nascent lunar exploration and mining sector—similar to NASA’s current Space Act Agreements and launch contracts—would help establish U.S. presence on the lunar surface and stimulate a U.S. space economy. State actors have been working on lunar technology, and it is imperative that we respond to their imminent presence on the Moon. The Federal Government, led by the White House and executed by the Office of Space Commerce, should undertake a comprehensive agenda and allocate federal funding for a new Lunar and Asteroid Task Force.
The SIPRI chapter describes the nuclear weapon modernization programs underway in each nuclear-armed state and provides estimates for how many nuclear warheads each country possesses.
FAS researchers Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda with the Nuclear Information Project write in the new SIPRI Yearbook 2024, released today.
The total number of U.S. nuclear warheads are now estimated to include 1,770 deployed warheads, 1,938 reserved for operational forces. An additional 1,336 retired warheads are awaiting dismantlement, for a total inventory of 5,044 warheads.
A military depot in central Belarus has recently been upgraded with additional security perimeters and an access point that indicate it could be intended for housing Russian nuclear warheads for Belarus’ Russia-supplied Iskander missile launchers.